


Druids and Frying Pans

by Onehelluvapilot



Series: Febuwhump [3]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Druids, Imprisonment, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Period-Typical Homophobia, Self-Hostage Negotiation, ish, it's enough to fit the prompt alright, mentioned only - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-18 06:55:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29114124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onehelluvapilot/pseuds/Onehelluvapilot
Summary: Elyan and his boyfriend Lancelot accidentally run into a group of druids in the forest. They're knocked out, and Elyan wakes to find them tied up.
Relationships: Elyan/Lancelot (Merlin)
Series: Febuwhump [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2134998
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	Druids and Frying Pans

**Author's Note:**

> Betaed by the lovely writer LiGi, who is also doing febuwhump with Merlin characters! Go check her out!

Elyan groaned as he gradually came to and realized the reason he was sitting up was not that he had fallen asleep reading in his comfortable armchair by the fire or leaning against Lancelot in bed, but that he was tied to a tree. His arms were stretched behind him around its trunk and his upper chest was also lashed back against it. It was hardly the first time he had woken up to find himself imprisoned, but he had hoped that after Morgana’s second takeover of Camelot, he was done with all that. He hadn’t even been on a mission this time; he had just been on a camping trip with Lancelot when they’d stumbled into the druid encampment.

Lancelot, where was he? Elyan instantly snapped to attention, despite the pounding in his head where he’d been hit with a frying pan by a startled cook. His eyes quickly found his friend in a similar position to him, tied to another tree a few feet away. With his head hanging forward and his chin against his chest, he looked to still be unconscious. Both of them had been stripped of their weapons; not that they would have been able to reach them anyway.

“What are two knights of Camelot doing out here?” A voice asked to his left, and Elyan felt like he pulled a muscle in his neck with how quickly he turned to look. How he hadn’t noticed the woman sitting there before, he didn’t know. She still had her frying pan in hand, resting it across her knees where she sat on a log like a knight on watch duty might do with his sword. “Were you looking for us? Are there more of you out here?”

Elyan carefully weighed his options on what to say. If he lied and said there were more men out there looking for them, the druids would probably rush to pack up and leave, since they were a peaceful people who generally avoided confrontation. They likely wouldn’t bother to try to bring the two knights with them as prisoners, nor would they kill them. However, they might leave them tied up, assuming that their friends would find and release them. Since there were no other men around, and they weren’t expected back in Camelot for another three days, they would die of dehydration or exposure before anyone even noticed they were missing and organized a search party.

If Elyan told the truth, however, their captors might be emboldened by the fact that the knights had no backup and decide that it would be safe to keep them for a while and potentially even interrogate them as to Camelot’s patrols and outposts. Such knowledge would be hugely beneficial to them in avoiding future encounters with knights, to the point where he could see someone resorting to torture to get it. He would just have to pray that the druids were peaceful enough not to do so.

“No, it’s just the two of us. And we weren’t searching for you; it was an accident that we stumbled into your camp,” Elyan replied.

“What mission are you on then?” the woman asked. The knight didn’t have a lie prepared for that, and as he knew he would stutter if he tried to come up with something on the spot and that that would likely make her more suspicious, he realized the truth was still his better option.

“None. We were just camping for fun.”

“For fun?” she asked incredulously. “Why would you go sleep in the woods for fun, when you have a safe and warm castle to live in?” Elyan could hear the bitterness in her voice, though in truth it was barely disguised. He supposed it might seem rather strange to someone who constantly lived on the run, with nothing more than a tent to call home, that they would voluntarily leave their own beds if they weren’t on a mission.

“Lancelot and I…” Elyan started, though he had to breathe in deeply before continuing. He knew the druids were accepting of magic and many alternative lifestyles, so hopefully she wouldn’t react badly, but it was still nerve-wracking to tell a stranger one’s deepest secret. Especially one that could get a person killed back in Camelot if it came to light. Merlin and Gwen were the only other people who knew. “We cannot always be ourselves at home. The privacy of the forest lets us express ourselves more fully.”

“You are lovers,” the woman said bluntly, but without judgement. Elyan winced, but nodded. “And yet you work for a king who would have you executed for your love, as surely as he would kill us for who we are.”

“Arthur’s a good man,” the knight defended him. “Or… at least he has the potential to be.” Back at home, even that statement could be interpreted as treasonous, but it wasn’t like this druid woman was going to report him for it, so Elyan allowed himself the honesty. “In the meantime, until the laws change, I do my best to enforce only the just ones, and to focus on protecting those that need it.”

“Do you honestly think the king will ever change the laws that benefit him and keep down people that might challenge his authority?” she asked. “The ban on magic is not just cruel; it directly benefits him by keeping the people afraid and labeling those that actually have the power to challenge him as criminals and traitors. Tell me, why would he change those laws?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do,” Elyan replied. The woman laughed bitterly.

“You’re more hopeful, or more naïve, than me,” she said, and he conceded that point with a nod. Their conversation lapsed into silence, and he took the break to glance over at Lancelot. To his surprise, the other knight was awake, and watching them quietly. He didn’t say anything either, just nodded to confirm that he was alright and with them, despite the blood trickling down from a cut at his temple. He must’ve been hit with the edge of the frying pan, whereas Elyan was pretty sure the flat bottom of it had clobbered him.

“Listen,” he said, turning back to the woman. “If you let us go, we’ll just go about our business like we never met. We won’t come after you, or tell anyone we ran into you.”

“We have no way of guaranteeing that,” she replied.

“I will admit that’s true, but I give you my word, as an honest man,” Elyan said. She looked unconvinced.

“You can have our cloaks,” Lancelot spoke up. The other man turned to look at him in shock. Lancelot, who had worked so hard to become a knight of Camelot, willingly giving up his uniform? It was almost unthinkable. “Two of your men can wear them, and that way, if you come across any patrols, you could claim that they’re knights escorting you to the border.” Arthur had ordered the raids on druid camps ended as one of his first acts as king, and now the knights were instructed that any of the wanderers found on Camelot soil were simply to be driven to another kingdom. “You wouldn’t be hassled or attacked that way.”

“How will you explain the loss of your uniforms?” the woman asked. She looked intrigued by the offer, but she obviously was wary of a trap.

Lancelot shrugged, as best as he was able to with his hands bound behind him. “The best lies have some truth in them, so I can say we came across some travelers who needed them. Maybe I could say they lost their blankets crossing a ford, so we gave them our cloaks so they wouldn’t get cold.”

“He’s enough of a bleeding heart that they would absolutely believe it,” Elyan backed him up with a nod over at him. The woman clearly considered it, studying their faces for a long moment before replying.

“Alright, deal. I don’t know what I would have done with the two of you anyways. You’ll stay tied up until the rest of the camp is packed up and ready to move, and then I’ll come back and untie you and take the uniforms.” They nodded their agreement, though it wasn’t like they had any other options, and she left.

“Are you alright?” Elyan asked Lancelot when she was gone.

“Yeah. Bit of a headache, but I’ll be fine. You?”

“About the same. How much did you hear?” He wondered when the other knight had woken up.

“Enough. Can I ask why you decided to tell her about us?”

“You’re not mad, are you? I just figured that it was less risky than lying and her catching us on it, since druids are generally pretty accepting.”

“No, I’m not mad. Actually kind of the opposite. I was just thinking that it would be nice if we could tell more people at home, and not just random women who have smacked us on the head with a frying pan and taken us prisoner.” He was smiling, despite their predicament.

“Yeah, that would be nice,” Elyan agreed with a little laugh. “When we get back, maybe we could start to tell some of the knights?”

“Tell them we’re lovers, you mean, right? Not that we got taken out by a woman wielding a skillet?”

“Oh gods, they can never learn about that. Percival and Gwaine would never let us live it down,” he said with both a laugh and a grimace at the thought. “And yeah, I was thinking we could tell them about us. I think Gwaine already suspects, since he was teasing me about it before we left to go camping, and Percival would probably be supportive, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, I think so. That sounds good. Let’s do it.”

He was smiling, and even tied up with blood trickling down the side of his face, he looked genuinely happy. Elyan was surprised to find that he was happy as well. He hadn’t thought that being knocked over the head and imprisoned would lead to anything good, but this time, he was pleased to be surprised.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always appreciated, and/or you can come talk to me on tumblr where I'm @gremlinbehaviour


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